MARK Hughes believes former Sky Blues striker John Hartson is facing up to the most crucial stage of his career with booming confidence....

MARK Hughes believes former Sky Blues striker John Hartson is facing up to the most crucial stage of his career with booming confidence.

The big Celtic hitman is expected to come bouncing back from suspension for Wales in World Cup combat against Norway, just in time for Celtic's Champions League campaign.

And after a disappointing few days that has followed the end of Wales's World Cup final dream, boss Hughes sees Hartson as the pick-me-up his nation needs.

Hughes said: "John is a big personality and has a great desire to play for Wales and he's a very proud Welshman.

"He has a presence, not just physically but the way he approaches the game and when John is at the top of his ability he can be unplayable, teams can't cope with him and hopefully we will get that sort of performance from him."

And boss Hughes reckons that Hartson is approaching the best years of a troubled career and that can only benefit Celtic and Wales.

He said: "Now he is at the stage of his career when he realises he has a great opportunity, a perfect platform at Celtic, to show everyone what a great player he is, and I'm sure he will grasp it.

"We are seeing John emerge as a good international forward with confidence and a great run of goals.

"With the Champions League coming up for him next week for the first time he accepts this is a great time for his career and he has a real buzz about him now.

"His attitude is first class, he wants to work and he wants to play and these are going to be exciting times for him. He's still young and he has crammed a lot into a short career."

Hughes added: "He's a player who has had knocks but he's had highs too and hopefully those highs will outnumber the knocks for the rest of his career.

"John has realised there have been occasions when he thought his career was going to be taken away from him, because of the doubts about his fitness.

"But that has been brushed aside now. He's very positive in everything he does."

Hughes was acutely aware of how collapsed moves to Spurs and then Rangers because of injury doubts shattered the striker's confidence.

Hughes said: "Obviously when that Rangers thing fell through I phoned him on a personal level and encouraged him to keep going. We discussed things.

"He's had difficult times but he's a strong character and he will go out on to the pitch and play for his life to try to prove people wrong. That's what stimulates him."